Twitter Reacts as Yu Darvish Misses Perfect Game by One Out vs. Houston Astros

It's taken exactly three days for the 2013 Major League Baseball season to nearly etch its place in history. Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish came within one out of recording the 24th perfect game in league history in a 7-0 win over the Houston Astros Tuesday night.

With just one out separating Darvish from a perfect game, Astros shortstop Marwin Gonzalez stepped to the plate. Not regarded as much of a slugger, it seemed like Darvish was about to ascend to early-season stardom.

Gonzalez had other plans. With a ground-ball single up the middle, Gonzalez ended all chance of history and Darvish left the game after 8.2 innings of stellar work. Teammate Michael Kirkman came in to record the final out.

Darvish was absolutely dominant from his opening pitch. The 26-year-old right-hander fanned the first two Astros who took the plate en route to recording 14 strikeouts on the night. Darvish fanned those batters on only 111 pitches, throwing 78 strikes as he dared Houston's hitters to make good contact.

The Astros failed for 8.2 innings, and this performance bodes wonderfully for Darvish's 2013 season.

The Japanese import is expected by many to take a gigantic leap this year, his second season stateside. Gifted with a multitude of pitches at a variety of speeds and solid command, Darvish was considered a superstar in waiting.

He put all of those gifts to work on Tuesday. Mixing pitches and locations, Darvish fooled an Astros lineup that most consider below-average on their best night. Though he has to be disappointed with not finishing the job, Darvish should take solace in the fact that his achievement captured the nation's attention.

As always, Twitter was abuzz both during and after Darvish's historic performance. Here is a look at all the best thoughts and reactions from around the web.

Behind the plate for Darvish's near-perfecto was the always-controversial A.J. Pierzynski. Sports Pickle theorized that Darvish may have had an ulterior motive for throwing the ball with such velocity:

SportsPickle @sportspickle

You realize the reason Yu Darvish is pitching so well is because he's trying to break A.J. Pierzynski's face with his fastball, right?

As Darvish's pitch count rose, there were some concerns out there about stretching him this far in his first start. But, as Grantland's Bill Simmons points out, the chance for history was too much to pass up:

Bill Simmons @BillSimmons

107 pitches thru 8. Stretching it to 120+ pitches in early-April makes me nervous as a Yu fantasy owner. But you gotta go for a perfect game

As one would expect for someone with Darvish's stuff, this isn't the first time the Rangers ace has pushed the limits of perfection. As ESPN Stats & Info points out, Darvish also brought a perfect game through five innings against the Royals last September:

ESPN Stats & Info @ESPNStatsInfo

This is 2nd time Yu Darvish has taken a perfect game through 5 innings. He also did so last September 3 against Royals (5 2/3 IP)

There was some (very small) good that came of Darvish's lack of perfection. As ESPN's Darren Rovell notes, the enterprising soul responsible for putting up his ticket prior to the game's completion won't be fetching as much as he or she hoped:

Nevertheless, we'll likely all look at Tuesday night as history lost. Yu Darvish's performance was fantastic and captured every baseball fan's attention, but missed the mark by one mere grounder up the middle.